drinking sake beneath the stars
by Kiria Ithica
Summary: When they meet for the first time, he says to her confidently, like he's never been wrong before and he's convinced he never will be, "If you can collapse due to hunger, you must have spiritual power." And she looks up at him with bleary eyes and says, "You have it too?" ONE-SHOT.


**drinking sake beneath the stars**

**by Kiria Ithica**

**summary:** When they meet for the first time, he says to her confidently, like he's never been wrong before and he's convinced he never will be, "If you can collapse due to hunger, you must have spiritual power."

**warnings:** spoilers, not necessarily perfect canon compliancy since it's been a while since I watched Bleach, really short, one-shot.

.

When they meet for the first time, he says to her confidently, like he's never been wrong before and he's convinced he never will be, "If you can collapse due to hunger, you must have spiritual power."

And she looks up at him with bleary eyes and says, "You have it too?"

Because he's right, of course. He nods, and grins that cat-like grin of his. "Yup. I have it too." A pause, and then, "Ichimaru Gin, nice to meet you."

For a second she thinks he thinks _her_ name is Gin, but then she realizes with a jolt that he means it's _his _name. He's introducing himself to her. She frowns, tests it out. "Gin... that's a weird name."

And it _is _a weird name, but he just shrugs and laughs it off. "What's _your _name, then?" There is a pause, and then-

"Rangiku," she says finally. "Matsumoto Rangiku."

.

She becomes a shinigami to be with him, and after her first day at the Shinigami Academy (it's actually called the Spiritual Arts Academy, but who can be bothered to say all that?) they celebrate together. Of course they do: they're best friends, aren't they?

They sneak back to their home district in North Rukongai with food and ridiculous amounts of liquor, because Rangiku is rather fond of spirits and Gin can drink most people in the Soul Society under the table, and end up at the old, rickety house that they called home for years.

Gin waltzes in like he owns the place, which he does, kind of, and Rangiku follows at his heels like she's always done. They sit outside and look up at the stars in the night sky. Rangiku digs some dried persimmon out of somewhere and hands it to him: they eat in silence, the tangy-sweet flavor of fruit lingering on their tongues even after they swallow.

Rangiku washes the persimmon down with liquor, of course. She takes a great swig from the bottle, enough for it to be like fire blazing down her throat and into her stomach, for her mind to feel comfortably cloudy.

Only little sips for Gin, though. He takes a mouthful from the bottle when she hands it to him and then puts it down on the cool, dry dirt ground. The wooden boards of the patio that they sit on creaks underneath him, sounding exactly the same as they always do.

The silence stretches on, long and peaceful. Rangiku takes a few more swigs from the sake bottle. The stars glitter in the night sky.

"Why did you become a shinigami?" says Gin finally.

Rangiku is tipsy, but she's not drunk enough yet that she can't speak. "To be with you," she says, quirking a smile. Candidly, she adds, "Why did _you _become a shinigami?"

He smiles softly. It's not a smile that graces his face very often, and Rangiku has to admit that it suits him. Although he _would _look good with any facial expression whatsoever, because that's the sort of person he is, the sort who'd even look good with his mouth wide open and drooling profusely. It'd be irritating, if he wasn't Gin.

"To protect you," he says, uncharacteristically serious.

She laughs, and maybe it isn't the perfect thing to do at a time like this, but it's what she does anyway. "Why?" she asks, and leans over to pull on his cheek.

And then that infuriating grin is back, halfway between a smile and a smirk, and it reveals nothing as always. "Because we're friends, of course," he says, and the moment passes.

Rangiku drinks the rest of the night away, and in the morning Gin carries her back to the Academy and tells everyone she has a fever.

.

Years pass. He becomes a captain. She becomes a lieutenant.

Not _his _lieutenant, but a lieutenant all the same, and she is very much proud of herself.

And then one day he leaves.

And she can't even describe the way it makes her feel inside, like someone's driven a blade through her heart and _twisted _it, because Gin is a traitor and he didn't even say goodbye.

He didn't even say goodbye.

That's the part that hurts the most.

.

He isn't a traitor after all. That idiot. That _idiot._

Gin Ichimaru waltzes out of her life and leaves her nothing to remember him by. It hurts, but it's just like him.

She tells herself that she has to get over him, that there's things to do (there's always things to do) and that it's for the best.

She cries herself to sleep anyway.


End file.
